International

The 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution Tuesday supporting bicycles as a tool for combatting climate change. The resolution, proposed by Turkmenistan, was passed unanimously and like all General Assembly resolutions is non-binding. It calls on member states to "integrate the bicycle into public transportation, in urban and rural settings in developing and developed countries." Increasing cycling through improved road safety and the promotion of bike-riding will help achieve "sustainable development, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," according to the resolution. More specifically, the resolution encourages member states to "give special attention to cycling in cross-cutting development strategies, including bicycle sharing services," as well as when possible in "international, regional, national and subnational development policies and programmes."

American comedian and actor Pete Davidson, who has made headlines recently for his new relationship with Kim Kardashian, is going to space as part of a six-member team on Blue Origin’s next flight next week, the company said yesterday. The Saturday Night Live star will be the only non-paying guest on the voyage aboard the New Shepard rocket, which is set to blast off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas on March 23 at 8:30am local time. It will be the fourth human flight for the company, which launched its billionaire founder and owner Jeff Bezos to space on its first crewed mission last summer. Davidson, 28, has been in the news lately for dating reality-star-turned-entrepreneur Kardashian, whose contentious divorce from rapper Kanye West was finalised earlier this month. West, legally known as Ye, has made no secret of his anger towards Davidson — burying alive a claymation version of the younger man in a new animated music video. The other crewmates are CEO and investor Marty Allen; husband and wife Sharon and Marc Hagle, who run a nonprofit and business, respectively; teacher and explorer Jim Kitchen, and George Nield, who founded a company that promotes commercial space activity. The ticket prices remain a secret, as they have since the first flight. Named after pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard, New Shepard is Blue Origin’s reusable, autonomously-flown suborbital rocket system that is capable of crossing the Karman Line, the internationally recognised boundary of space, 62 miles high. During the 11-minute round trip, passengers experience several minutes of weightlessness and can observe the curvature of the Earth. The capsule floats back to the surface on giant parachutes for a gentle desert landing.

Put up your dukes, Vlad.  Elon Musk, the world's richest man, on Monday challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight, with nothing less than the fate of Ukraine, scene of Moscow's brutal invasion, at stake. The eccentric billionaire and founder of aerospace company SpaceX took to Twitter, where his messages are notoriously erratic, to see whether the Russian leader would test his mettle in person rather than through his country's forces fighting across the border. "I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine," said Musk. "Do you accept this fight?" he added in Russian, directly addressing the official English-language Twitter account of the 69-year-old president. When one of Musk's 77 million followers wrote that the Tesla founder might not have thought his challenge through, Musk said he was "absolutely serious." "If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge. But he will not," he added. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin. The South African-born Musk, 50, had already offered his support for Kyiv, tweeting "Hold strong Ukraine" this month while also offering "my sympathies to the great people of Russia, who do not want this" war. He also responded to a Kyiv plea by activating the Starlink internet service in Ukraine and sending equipment to help bring connectivity to areas hit by Russian military attacks. Musk often raises eyebrows on Twitter. In February he accused the US stock market regulator, which had imposed fines and restrictions on Musk and Tesla, of trying to muzzle his free speech. And he compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in a message supporting opponents of government Covid restrictions.  He later deleted the post.

A US journalist was shot dead and another wounded on Sunday in Irpin, a frontline suburb of Kyiv that has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine. Papers found on the American reporter's body identified him as 50-year-old video documentary shooter Brent Renaud, of New York. A New York Times identity card was among the papers, leading to reports he worked for the paper, but the US daily said he was not working for it at the time of his death. The International Federation of Journalists identified the wounded reporter as American photographer Juan Arredondo. A third victim, a Ukrainian who had been in the same car as the Americans, was also wounded, according to a medic at the scene. AFP reporters in Irpin saw Ukrainian volunteer soldiers rush the body on a stretcher to a more secure location before laying it out on the ground for further identification. Danylo Shapovalov, a surgeon volunteering for the Ukrainian territorial defence, said Renaud died instantly from a gunshot wound to his neck. Ukrainian officials were quick to blame Russian forces for the shooting but the exact circumstances were unclear. AFP reporters heard small arms and artillery fire in the area, which runs along the front splitting Ukrainian positions from advancing Russian forces "The car was shot at. There were two journalists and one of ours," Shapovalov told AFP. "Our guy and the journalist are wounded, I provided them first aid, the other one received a wound in the neck, he died immediately." - 'They kept shooting' -The New York Times called Renaud "a talented photographer and filmmaker" who last contributed to the paper in 2015. "He was not on assignment for any desk at The Times in Ukraine," said a statement tweeted by deputy managing editor Cliff Levy. Arredondo said in a news video shot of him in his hospital bed that the reporters' vehicle came under attack after crossing a Ukrainian-controlled checkpoint. "We were going to film other refugees leaving. We got into a car, someone offered to take us to the other bridge," he said. "We crossed a checkpoint and they started shooting at us, so the driver turned around and they kept shooting." Ukrainian officials immediately blamed Russian forces for the attack, which occurred near a bridge leading from Irpin to the flashpoint town of Bucha, now under Russian control. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said US officials would consult with Kyiv to determine the circumstances of the attack. "We'll be consulting with the Ukrainians to determine how this happened and then to measure and execute appropriate consequences as a result of it," Sullivan told CBS television. Renaud won Harvard University's Nieman Fellowship in 2019, which he used to report on a wide range of global issues, including Black Lives Matter protests in his native Little Rock, Arkansas. His other work included an HBO documentary on heroin addiction and reports on Africa and the Middle East, according to his official Nieman biography. Renaud becomes the first foreign reporter killed in Ukraine since the Russian assault began on February 24. A Ukrainian journalist died during a Russian missile strike aimed at Kyiv's television tower, which killed five people walking in the area on March 1.

Ex-student leader Gabriel Boric was sworn in yesterday as Chile’s youngest president, with plans to turn the country into a greener, more egalitarian “welfare state”. Aged 36, Boric takes over the reins of a country clamouring for change following mass protests in 2019, which he supported, against deep-rooted inequality in income, healthcare, education and pensions. The revolt, which left dozens dead and hundreds injured, was the catalyst for a process now under way to rewrite Chile’s dictatorship-era constitution. Boric has vowed to relegate “to the grave” Chile’s neoliberal economic model, which dates from the era of military despot Augusto Pinochet and is widely seen as sidelining the poor and working classes. One per cent of Chile’s population owns about a quarter of its wealth. Despite concern over his Frente Amplio (Broad Front)’s political alliance with the Communist Party in a country that traditionally votes for the centre, Boric won a surprise runaway election victory last December. He succeeded in mobilising women and the youth, with a record voter turnout giving him nearly 56% of the vote to beat far-right Pinochet apologist Jose Antonio Kast. The men, polar opposite political outsiders, had polled neck-and-neck ahead of the vote. As the stock exchange dropped on news of Boric’s victory, he vowed in his first official address to “expand social rights” in Chile, but to do so with “fiscal responsibility”. Boric took the oath yesterday in Valparaiso, the seat of Congress, in a suit but no tie, appearing to holding back tears of emotion as he received the presidential sash from his predecessor Sebastian Pinera. He expressed a “great sense of responsibility and duty to the people” of Chile. “We will do our best to rise to the challenges we face as a country,” the new president said. A lawmaker since 2014, millennial Boric inherits an economy ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak. Much of 2021’s GDP growth was fuelled by temporary pandemic grants and stop-gap withdrawals allowed from private pension funds.

US President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports on Tuesday in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine, underscoring strong bipartisan support for a move that he acknowledged would drive up US energy prices. "We're banning all imports of Russian oil and gas energy," Biden told reporters at the White House. "That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable in US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war machine." Oil prices jumped on the news, with Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 for May climbing by 5.4% to $129.91 a barrel by 1345 GMT. Biden has been working with allies in Europe, who are far more dependent on Russian oil, to isolate Russia's energy-heavy economy and Putin. Britain announced shortly before Biden's remarks that it would phase out the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. Biden said sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies had already caused the Russian economy to "crater". He said the latest moves had been made in close consultation with allies and partners around the world. The United States imported more than 20.4 million barrels of crude and refined products a month on average from Russia in 2021, about 8% of US liquid fuel imports, according to the Energy Information Administration, and the ban is expected to send already high gasoline prices and inflation soaring. The United States also imports a negligible amount of coal from Russia. Biden predicted prices would rise further as a result of "Putin's war," but pledged to do all he could to minimize the impact on the American people. He also warned US gas companies against exploiting the situation to engage in profiteering or price gouging. US SeNator Chris Coons said the administration was coordinating with European allies "and making sure that we've done the groundwork to understand how to effectively implement a ban on Russian energy." "We are going to see increased gas prices here in the United States. In Europe, they will see dramatic increases in prices. That's the cost of standing up for freedom and standing alongside the Ukrainian people, but it's going to cost us," Coons told CNN. The White House had been coordinating with US congressional leaders working on fast-tracking bipartisan legislation to ban Russian imports, but the ban of Russian imports would make any such bill moot. Republican lawmakers took to social media to welcome the decision, while criticizing Biden's green energy policies, and calling for the administration to support more oil and gas production at home. US Representative Susan Wild said Americans need to realize the larger sacrifice needed. "Obviously nobody wants to pay more for gas," Wild, a Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said on MSNBC. In announcing that it is phasing out imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022, Britain said it is giving the market and businesses more than enough time to find alternatives to the imports, which make up 8% of demand. "The government will also work with companies through a new Taskforce on Oil to support them to make use of this period in finding alternative supplies," British Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said.

US lawmakers pledged in a video call yesterday with Ukraine’s president to provide a further $10bn in assistance as the besieged country faces a Russian onslaught. In the call with American legislators of both parties, President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated a plea for Russian-made planes. The US Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, cited by a source briefed on the call, said Democrats and Republicans were “working very hard” toward passing the relief package. “We will get that assistance of over $10bn in economic, humanitarian and security assistance to the Ukrainian people quickly,” he said. The bipartisan effort was underlined by Republican Senator Steve Daines, who told Fox News after the call that lawmakers were “unified in our support for Ukraine.” “We need to pass this $10bn relief package,” he said, adding that half would go toward humanitarian aid and half would be in military assistance. “They need more force on the ground,” he said, as Russian units pressed their offensive in Ukraine for a tenth day. Zelensky, wearing a military-green T-shirt and seated beside a Ukrainian flag, also urged Congress to bolster already broad sanctions on Russia, including on its oil and gas sector — a move some US lawmakers have also called for as the war in Ukraine intensifies. But the White House has ruled this out so far, fearing it might cause rising oil prices to go up even more and hurt US consumers stung by record inflation. Zelensky also “made a desperate plea for Eastern European countries to provide Russian-made planes” that Ukrainians are trained to fly, Schumer said in a statement after the call, adding he would work to “help the administration to facilitate their transfer.” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham underscored that Nato countries had such warplanes. “They are waiting to be delivered and apparently the United States is part of the problem not the solution,” Graham said in a video posted on Twitter. “With planes and drones, President Zelensky indicated that Ukraine would be a more effective fighting force. So let’s get them the planes and drones they need.” Last week, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said EU countries were willing to send fighter jets to Ukraine. But no planes have yet been delivered, with the countries concerned — Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia — expressing hesitancy over the move.

Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot said Saturday that it was suspending all of its international flights beginning March 8, as Moscow faces down waves of Western sanctions over its military incursion in Ukraine. An Aeroflot statement on the "temporary suspension of all international flights from March 8," cited new "circumstances that impede the operation of flights," noting that all domestic routes would continue unchanged as well as flights to neighbouring Belarus.

German logistics giant DHL announced Wednesday it was stopping deliveries to Russia and Belarus, joining a growing list of Western businesses to cease operations in the countries after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The "inbound services to Russia and Belarus have been suspended", DHL said in a statement, adding that it was "not accepting shipments to those countries until further notice". DHL, one of the world's largest logistics groups, also closed its operation and offices in Ukraine until further notice to protect the "safety of our employees", it said. An increasing number of Western companies have broken off ties with Russia, which is the target of sanctions. German logistics group DB Schenker announced the suspension of some services in Russia on Tuesday. Air freight deliveries to and from Europe were stopped after a number of Western countries blocked Russian planes from their airspace, DB Schenker said, while overland services continued with delays. DB Schenker also suspended all services to and from the Ukraine.  The Swiss logistics group Kuehne+Nagel on Tuesday similarly suspended all import shipments "with immediate effect and pending further notice" with the exception of medical and humanitarian deliveries. Kuehne+Nagel likewise halted its operations in the Ukraine. The world's biggest shipping companies on Tuesday also announced they were holding off on non-essential deliveries to Russia. Danish shipping giant Maersk, Switzerland-based MSC and France's CMA CGM all announced that they would no longer take bookings for goods from Russia and were suspending most deliveries.

The United States warns citizens against travelling to Hong Kong, citing the risk of children being separated from parents as the Chinese city imposes controversial Covid isolation policies. The State Department upgraded Hong Kong to its highest "Do Not Travel" warning "due to Covid-19 related restrictions, including the risk of parents and children being separated". "In some cases, children in Hong Kong who test positive have been separated from their parents and kept in isolation until they meet local hospital discharge requirements," the State Department added. The Asian financial hub is in the grip of its worst coronavirus outbreak, registering tens of thousands of new cases each day, overwhelming hospitals and shattering the city's zero-Covid strategy. China has ordered local officials to stamp out the outbreak even as studies suggest as many as a quarter of the city's residents may have been infected in the current wave. Authorities plan to test all 7.4 million residents later this month and are scrambling to build a network of isolation camps and temporary hospitals, with China's help, to house the infected. "It remains our policy objective to subject all confirmed people to isolation at places other than their places of accommodation so as not to infect others," city leader Carrie Lam wrote in a progress report this week. That has deepened anxieties about family separations in the months ahead and the warning by the United States is the first time the risk has been specifically cited in a travel advisory.   - Spiralling infections - More than 220,000 infections have been recorded in the last two months, compared with just 12,000 for the rest of the pandemic -- while its death rate is currently four times Singapore's. The real figure is believed to be far higher in part because residents are worried about informing authorities they are infected. For two years Hong Kong kept infections largely at bay using a strict zero-Covid strategy but an outbreak of the highly infectious Omicron variant has been tearing through the city since January. The government was caught flat-footed with few plans in place to deal with a mass outbreak despite the two-year breathing room afforded by the zero-Covid success. The city has since seen overflowing hospitals and morgues, shortages of medics and ambulances, panic buying and a frantic expansion of the city's spartan quarantine camp system. The vast majority of those dying are over 70 and unvaccinated after Hong Kong failed to raise its elderly vaccination rate despite ample supplies. The outbreak has led to the imposition of the toughest restrictions yet with more than a dozen types of businesses ordered to close and a ban on more than two people gathering in public.    - UK, Australia fears - Departures by foreign residents have spiked while businesses have voiced growing frustration and alarm over the city's descent into further international isolation.  Last week it emerged some parents were being separated from children -- including babies -- who had tested positive and were being treated in hospital. Hong Kong health authorities have defended the policy of separating sick children from their uninfected parents, saying that rapidly filling hospital spaces should be reserved for patients. Last week, British consul general Brian Davidson said his team had "robustly challenged" the Hong Kong government over the practice, while the Australian consulate said it had also taken up the issue. The United States, Britain and Australia are on a list of nine nations currently forbidden from flying to Hong Kong because of their own coronavirus infections. The ban was recently extended until late April. Details are currently scant on how this month's mass testing this will work and where the infected will be housed. About 70,000 isolation units for mild cases are due to come online in the coming weeks, in requisitioned hotels, public housing units and camps. At Hong Kong's current official caseload, that would cover roughly two days' worth of new infections. Media reports citing government officials that some sort of lockdown will be ordered during the testing period have also fuelled panic buying this week. 

The world has been stunned by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but shock quickly gave way to indignation in other strife-torn parts of the world over media commentary many saw as racist against them. "This isn't a place -- with all due respect, you know -- like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades," said Charlie D'Agata of US network CBS News. "This is a relatively civilised, relatively European -- I have to choose those words carefully too -- city where you wouldn't expect that or hope it is going to happen." A day later, after much online furore, D'Agata apologised for his "poor choice of words". This was just one of many remarks on reputable media outlets drawing a line between the conflict unfolding in Ukraine and those in other parts of the world. Many Arabs were quick to point out the double standard, noting that while the toll of war may be similar in the respective conflicts, the media treatment is not. Some also drew a comparison between Europe's welcoming of Ukrainian refugees and the influx of Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, which was declared a "migrant crisis". Political scientist Ziad Majed said that, while there was "magnificent solidarity" from the world over the Ukraine conflict, it also revealed a "shocking distinction". The discrepancies in media treatment revealed the "dehumanisation of refugees from the Middle East", said Majed, a professor at the American University of Paris. "We can understand that the Ukrainians are Europeans, and that the memory of war in Europe can revive a lot of emotions," he said. But he stressed that "when we hear some commentators speaking about 'people like us', this suggests that those coming from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Africa are not (like them)".   - 'Racist coverage' - Salem Barahmeh, director of the pro-Palestinian platform Rabet, was quick to point out seeming discrepancies in the commentary. "Refugees are welcome depending where they come from," he wrote on Twitter, adding that "resistance to occupation is not only legitimate but a right". The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists' Association condemned "examples of racist news coverage that ascribes more importance to some victims of war than others". "This type of commentary reflects the pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalising tragedy in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America."   - 'Civilised' -   For Syrians, the disparity in media treatment is particularly striking as Russia launched a bloody intervention to prop up Bashar al-Assad's regime more than six years ago. Before the war in Ukraine, Majed said, Syrian territory served as a "laboratory" for the Russian army, on which it "tested its arsenal and tactics". Journalist Philippe Corbe referenced that conflict when he spoke about the Ukraine refugee flow on French broadcaster BFM TV. "We are not talking about Syrians fleeing the bombardment of the Syrian regime, supported by Vladimir Putin," he said. "We are talking about Europeans who are leaving in their cars, that look like our cars... and who are just trying to save their lives." Contacted by AFP, the broadcaster said Corbe's remarks were "clumsy but taken out of context... (and) led to the mistaken belief that he was defending a position opposite to the one he wanted to emphasise, and he regrets this". AdeelaOfficial, an Instagram account dedicated to humorous commentary on celebrity news, took a break from the jokes to decry media "racism". "The Western media claims to protect human rights and defend democracy, when in reality it is ignorant, racist and cannot see beyond its own nose," it charged. Afghans have also expressed exasperation over Ukraine coverage, just six months after the Taliban seized control in a lightning offensive that sent the country spiralling into chaos and hundreds of thousands of people into exile. Many have highlighted what they saw as an emphasis media has put on Christian Europeans with "blond hair and blue eyes" becoming refugees, marking them out as different from other victims of war. "It is the same point being made again and again: people in all other conflicts were half humans, of lesser worthy origin and race, but Europeans are full humans. So this war matters," said Muska Dastageer, a university lecturer. The normalisation of war in the Middle East and so-called third world countries and "the assumption that they deserve war is just one of the reasons why those wars lasted so long," added Aisha Khurram, a former youth representative to the United Nations.

US payment card firms Visa Inc (V.N) and Mastercard Inc have blocked multiple Russian financial institutions from their network, complying with government sanctions imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Visa said on Monday it was taking prompt action to ensure compliance with applicable sanctions, adding that it will donate $2 million for humanitarian aid. Mastercard also promised to contribute $2 million. "We will continue to work with regulators in the days ahead to abide fully by our compliance obligations as they evolve," Mastercard said in a separate statement late on Monday. The government sanctions require Visa to suspend access to its network for entities listed as Specially Designated Nationals, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The United States has added various Russian financial firms to the list, including the country's central bank and second-largest lender VTB (VTBR.MM). On Saturday, the U.S., Britain, Europe and Canada announced new sanctions on Russia - including blocking certain lenders' access to the SWIFT international payment system. Russians rushed to ATMs and waited in long queues on Sunday and Monday amid concerns that bank cards may cease to function, or that banks would limit cash withdrawals. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation". Many Western banks, airlines and more have cut ties with Russia, calling the country's actions unacceptable. European nations and Canada have shut their airspace to Russian aircraft.

US President Joe Biden said Washington is in still unresolved “consultations” with India, when asked if Washington and Delhi were fully in sync on a response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine ahead of an expected UN Security Council vote. Biden did not elaborate, but his short response to a question at a briefing at which he announced tough new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine drew attention to an awkward division between his administration and India, a country central to its efforts to push back against China’s growing power. India has developed close ties with Washington in recent years but has a long-standing close relationship with Moscow, which remains a major supplier of its defence equipment. The 15-member United Nations Security Council, of which India is a member, was set to vote on a draft resolution that would condemn Russia for invading Ukraine and require Moscow to immediately and unconditionally withdraw, a senior US administration official said. Russia is expected to veto the step, but Washington sees the vote as a chance to try and isolate Moscow, seeking at least 13 votes in favour and an abstention by Russia’s partner — China. India has so far avoided condemning Russian actions in Ukraine, although Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did urge an end to violence there in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden said Putin would be a pariah on the international stage as a result of his attack on Ukraine and “any nation that countenances Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association.” Asked if India was fully in sync with the US, he said: “We’re in consultation with India today. We haven’t resolved that completely.” In a statement, the US state department said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and “stressed the importance of a strong collective response to condemn Russia’s invasion and call for an immediate withdrawal and ceasefire.” Delhi upset Washington with its purchase last year of Russia’s S-400 air defence system, putting it at risk of US sanctions under a 2017 US law aimed at deterring countries from buying Russian military hardware. While there have been calls in Congress to exempt India from sanctions, some analysts say Russia’s actions in Ukraine could bring increased pressure for sanctions from Russia hawks in the administration. Any sanctions could jeopardise US co-operation with Delhi in the Quad forum with Japan and Australia aimed at pushing back against China’s expanding influence. The White House did not immediately respond when asked to elaborate on Biden’s comment and a State Department spokesperson said: “We are continuing to consult with our Indian counterparts on a collective response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

President Joe Biden picked Ketanji Brown Jackson yesterday to be the first black woman in US history to serve on the nation’s highest court. “I’m proud to announce that I am nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court,” he said. “She is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice.” Biden picked Jackson, 51, for a lifetime job on the nation’s top judicial body to succeed retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, fulfilling a campaign promise he made two years ago to the day to make the historic appointment. Jackson was appointed to the federal bench in 2013, and was backed by three Republican senators last year when she was elevated to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, seen as a staging ground for aspiring Supreme Court justices. With one liberal justice replacing another, the announcement will not reshape the ideological make-up of the court – but it is a huge moment for Biden. White House officials hope it will provide a few days of positive news coverage ahead of the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. The pick presents an opportunity for the administration to pivot from a spate of bad news in recent months, with Biden’s domestic agenda stalled amid runaway inflation and plummeting poll numbers. The announcement is a chance for Biden to show the black voters who rescued his floundering 2020 primary campaign that he can deliver for them following the recent defeat of voting rights legislation. Black Americans are among Biden’s strongest supporters, with two-thirds approving of his job performance, according to a CBS poll released last week. His popularity among the key demographic however declined over the months following his inauguration and he has not recovered the lost ground. In his first year in office, Biden nominated 62 women to the federal judiciary, including 24 black women. However, there are still only a few dozen active black female judges on the federal bench out of almost 800 total. Of the 115 people who have ever served on the Supreme Court, all but three have been white, only two have been black and both of those were men. “It’s time we had a court that reflects the full talent and greatness of our nation,” Biden said at a White House event with his nominee at his side. Biden said that for too long the US government and its courts have not “looked like America”. The president had promised during his successful 2020 White House run to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in US history. The pledge dismayed some Republicans who thought ruling out candidates of other backgrounds would further politicise the judiciary. Jackson will now go through weeks of hearings and meetings with senators before her nomination comes to the floor, likely in April.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has placed a question mark over the future of the International Space Station (ISS), long a symbol of post Cold War co-operation, where astronauts and cosmonauts proudly live and work side-by-side. The outpost was the subject of a Twitter thread by Russian space agency head Dmitry Rogozin, who warned on Thursday that US sanctions could “destroy our co-operation” and said the research platform would plummet to the Earth without his nation’s help. Experts view such threats as inflated political rhetoric, given the two sides’ reliance on one another for the safety of their personnel. However, it could hasten a long expected divorce in their fragile marriage. “Nobody wants to put the lives of astronauts and cosmonauts in danger by political manoeuvring,” John Logsdon, a professor and space analyst at George Washington University, told AFP. “It was a very conscious decision when Russia was brought into the station partnership in 1994 to make the station interdependent,” he added – a decision taken at the time with cost and speed concerns in mind. The ISS, a collaboration among the US, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, is split into two sections: the US Orbital Segment, and the Russian Orbital Segment. At present, the ISS depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, some 250 miles (400km) above sea level, with the US segment responsible for electricity and life support systems. Rogozin referenced this co-dependence in a series of hostile tweets posted shortly after US President Joe Biden announced sanctions aimed at Russia’s aerospace industry. “If you block co-operation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled deorbiting and falling on US or European territory?” said Rogozin – noting that the station doesn’t fly over much of Russia. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), for its part, responded with a bland statement emphasising it “continues working with all our international partners, including the State Space Corporation Roscosmos, for the ongoing safe operations of the International Space Station”. Julie Patarin-Jossec, a French academic and author of a book on the ISS, said that Rogozin “is a political figure, who is known to be very loyal to power” and has a history of making fiery statements. Those aboard the station – Russia’s Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, the United States’ Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and Germany’s Matthias Maurer – are highly trained professionals, and unlikely to be affected, she told AFP. “Most astronauts of the last decades, or who have had experience of the ISS, are very attached to international co-operation,” Patarin-Jossec said. What’s more, she added, withdrawing from the ISS programme would leave Russia without a crewed space programme – unless it quickly pivots to working with China aboard the Tiangong space station, which is still under construction and currently hosts three crew members. US-Russian co-operation has a long history that stretches back to the height of the Cold War, but it hasn’t been without it ebbs and flows. After America placed the first men on the Moon in 1969, then president Richard Nixon looked for opportunities to make the space programme more co-operative, inviting allies to join the Space Shuttle programme. “In parallel he and Henry Kissinger decided to use a possible joint US-Soviet mission as a symbol of detente,” explained Logsdon. That led to the landmark Apollo-Soyuz mission of 1975, when US and Russian spacecraft docked for the first time in a globally televised event. The partnership was supposed to expand even further, with possible Space Shuttle missions to an early Russian space station, but president Jimmy Carter nixed such plans after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It wasn’t until the collapse of the Soviet Union that Russian officials reached out to the administration of Bill Clinton about the idea of a merger, which paved the way for the launch of the first module of the ISS in 1998. The ISS has weathered geopolitical storms in the past – most notably the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 – but current tensions, which Logsdon said were the most serious since the Cuban missile crisis, could mark the beginning of the end. Space watcher Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, noted that the US is already developing propulsion capacity using Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo ships. Nasa currently wants the station to orbit until 2030, while Russia has not committed itself to beyond 2024. “I would think that unless the current situation gets resolved quickly, that could affect the Russian desire to stay involved, or the US desire to keep them involved,” said Logsdon.

The harsh sanctions the United States imposed on Russia Thursday cast a wide net and seek to cripple its financial and technology sectors, as well as punish the country's elites. But Washington and its allies stopped short of enacting even tougher measures to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The fresh sanctions target Russia's two largest banks, which will be cut off from US dollar transactions, while state energy giant Gazprom and other major companies will not be able to raise financing in Western markets. In addition, the allies imposed export controls on high-tech items aimed at crippling Russia' defense and aerospace sector, while Washington added more names to its list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs. "This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time," US President Joe Biden said in an address at the White House. However, the penalties fell short of what some observers were expecting, including by failing to cut Russia off from SWIFT, the messaging system used to move money around the world. That would have hindered the country's ability to profit from the international energy market, which operates largely in US dollars. "It is always an option but right now that's not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take," Biden told reporters. But he said "the sanctions we've imposed exceed SWIFT. The sanctions we imposed exceed anything that's ever been done." And Biden said penalties directly targeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin remain an option. "It's not a bluff, it's on the table," he said. - Inflicting pain -The banks targeted by the sanctions, Sberbank and VTB Bank, are Russia's two largest and majority owned by the government, accounting for about half the banking system. The US Treasury Department said it imposed "full blocking sanctions" on VTB, meaning all US-held assets "will be instantly frozen and inaccessible to the Kremlin." VTB is "one of the largest financial institutions Treasury has ever blocked" and the move "sends an unmistakable signal," the department said. Sberbank, which holds about a third of all bank assets in Russia, will be banned from conducting transactions through the US financial system. Together with penalties against three other banks, the actions target "nearly 80 percent of all banking assets in Russia and will have a deep and long-lasting effect on the Russian economy and financial system," Treasury said. And the Commerce Department said the coordinated export controls impose a "denial on sensitive items Moscow relies on for its defense, aerospace and maritime industries." Restricted items include semiconductors, computers, telecommunications, information security equipment, lasers and sensors. Washington also seized the assets of a new group of Russian oligarchs, and in a separate action took similar steps against 24 Belarusian individuals and organizations for their "support for, and facilitation of, the invasion" of Ukraine. Andrew Lohsen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies praised that step, citing reports of attacks on Ukraine coming from its neighbor to the northwest. That makes Belarus "unquestionably a party to this and therefore, they need to be met with a full measure of sanctions as well," Lohsen told AFP. - 'Piggy bank' protection? -While Lohsen predicted the export controls will also be effective, if the United States and its European allies want to squeeze Moscow further, they may have to take steps like going after its oil and gas sector, even if that would drive up fuel prices at home. Nonetheless, the initial coordinated response may have been "more of a sharp reaction than Putin was expecting" and will have "real implications for Russia's long term growth," Lohsen said. Moscow took steps to shield its economy after it was hit with sanctions in 2014 when it invaded and annexed Crimea in southern Ukraine, including by stockpiling cash and gold. Russia's public debt amounts to just 18 percent of its GDP, far lower than most major economies, and it has foreign reserves of $643 billion as of the end of last week, according to official data. Elina Ribakova of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), a global banking association, told AFP that Moscow's policies were "a very deliberate" policy shift "to accommodate geopolitical ambitions." "They have a piggy bank that can protect them, and support the economy even if they go into deficit," she said. IIF Executive Vice President Clay Lowery said Russia will feel the pain, and while some steps were omitted, there is room to escalate. "The bottom line is that these sanctions will have a significant impact on Russia's overall economy, and average Russians will feel the cost," Lowery, a former senior Treasury official, said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden was meeting with G7 allies Thursday to hammer out a raft of new sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine, and will later speak to the American people on a crisis that he warns will cause "catastrophic loss of life." The virtual, closed-door meeting of G7 leaders -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- was set to start at 9:00 am (1400 GMT), with Biden's White House speech scheduled for early afternoon. For weeks, as Russia built up tens of thousands of troops and heavy weapons on Ukraine's border, Biden has led NATO and other European allies in trying to craft a package of what Washington says are "unprecedented" sanctions as a deterrent. Now that the deterrent has failed, the effort is likely to see rapid escalation to inflict real pain on Russia's already shaky economy. "The United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable," Biden said in his first comments late Wednesday in Washington, after Russian missiles began to rain down on Ukraine. Biden also held a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, saying afterwards that he had promised to "provide support and assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people." The US president noted that Zelensky had requested him to "call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly" against Putin's "flagrant aggression." On Tuesday, after Putin first announced he would send troops as "peacekeepers" to two small areas already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, Western countries swung into action. The US government joined European allies in imposing sanctions on two Russian banks, Moscow's sovereign debt, several oligarchs and other measures. And on Wednesday, as the Russian invasion force became clearly primed to attack, Biden announced he was imposing sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany -- one of energy-rich Moscow's highest-profile geopolitical projects. Germany had earlier announced it would block the pipeline from opening for deliveries. US officials say tougher new sanctions will include targeting other, bigger banks, more oligarchs close to Putin and, crucially, a ban on exports to Russia of high-tech equipment and components. It was not clear how many of these measures would be announced Thursday. Some measures also risk serious economic fallout for Western countries and could imperil the global economy recovery after the Covid pandemic. Already stock markets are tumbling and oil prices are soaring over $100 a barrel.   - 'Death and destruction' -   Soon after the Russian attacks began, US senators from both parties indicated support for a tough response. "Tonight, the entire post-World War international order sits on a knife edge. If Putin does not pay a devastating price for this transgression, then our own security will soon be at risk," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said. Another Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, said "President Biden has already imposed an initial tranche of sanctions, and it is now time for us to up the pain level for the Russian government." Russians "will pay a steep cost for Putin's reckless ambition, in blood and in economic harm," he said. Republican Senator Mitt Romney warned against "the peril of again looking away from Putin's tyranny" and urging "the harshest economic penalties" and "expelling them from global institutions." In his statement, Biden said "the prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering."

Russia said Wednesday that new US sanctions will meet a "strong response" after US President Joe Biden announced new penalties against Moscow for "beginning" an invasion of Ukraine.  "There should be no doubt -- sanctions will meet a strong response, not necessarily symmetrical, but well-calibrated and sensitive for the American side," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. 

South Korean boy band BTS will return to the United States for a series of concerts in Las Vegas in April, their agency said on Wednesday. The concerts, part of their 'Permission to Dance on Stage' tour that has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, will be held on April 8-9 and 15-16, with the last show live-streamed, Bit Hit Music said in a statement. Since debuting in 2013, BTS has spearheaded a global K-pop craze with catchy, upbeat music and dances, as well as lyrics and social campaigns aimed at empowering young people, many of whom have formed massive online fan bases. The seven-member group played its first in-person concerts since the onset of the pandemic in November, in Los Angeles, and last week announced it would put on the first shows for their home fans since the pandemic began, with three concerts in the capital, Seoul, next month. On Tuesday Big Hit said V, the band's singer and songwriter whose real name is Kim Tae-hyung, had recovered from a coronavirus infection. He was the band's fifth member to contract Covid-19, including three who tested positive in December shortly after their return from the US shows. As the pandemic spread in 2020, the band postponed and then called off what was meant to be their biggest international tour involving nearly 40 concerts. They held some online shows instead.

US President Joe Biden yesterday announced the “first tranche” of sanctions against Russia, including steps to starve the country of financing, saying Moscow had started an invasion of Ukraine. And Biden threatened tougher steps if Russia “continues its aggression.” “We’re implementing sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing,” Biden said. “It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.” Russian President Vladimir Putin did not watch a speech by Biden announcing sanctions and is currently in a meeting, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency.  The US measures also target VEB, Russia’s state development bank, and members of the country’s “elites,” Biden said. “They share the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies, and should share in the pain as well.” Biden said the responses “have been closely co-ordinated with our allies and partners” and added, “We’ll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates.” However, Washington’s response did not seem to go as far as the European Union, nor as far as some expected. Biden announced “full blocking sanctions” on both VEB and Russia’s “military bank,” which likely means the institutions will have their foreign assets frozen and will be prohibited from using the US financial system. However, the penalties cover fewer financial institutions, and do not appear to have severed the country from the SWIFT system used to move money around the globe. Nor did Biden resort to export controls, which would have cut Russian firms off from key high-tech equipment and software, which some analysts said was a possibility. Starting today, he said, sanctions would begin against Russian elites and their family members as well. “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Biden said. “Russia has now undeniably moved against Ukraine by declaring these independent states.” “As Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well,” Biden said. “Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions.” On Monday a senior administration official said Russia sending troops to the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine did not represent a further invasion because Russia had troops there previously. But yesterday, deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer said an invasion had begun. Biden used similar language. The United States could wield its most powerful sanctioning tool against certain Russian people and companies by placing them on the Specially Designated Nationals list, effectively kicking them out of the US banking system, banning them from trading with Americans, and freezing their US assets. The Biden administration has said it plans to spare everyday Russians from the brunt of US export controls if Russia invades Ukraine, and focus on targeting industrial sectors, a White House official said in late January. Still, “key people” will also face “massive sanctions,” White House national security official Peter Harrell said in a speech in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Biden met yesterday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to “reaffirm” support for Kyiv amid soaring tensions with Russia. Biden assured Kuleba the United States “would continue providing security assistance and macroeconomic support to Ukraine,” while also reiterating Washington’s readiness “to respond swiftly and decisively to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine.”